The idea of catching criminals via social media seems to be catching on. Earlier this month, I wrote here about new crime-stopper programs such as Silent Witness. These programs post surveillance videos, photos and other information about crimes online, and provide people who can help identify the perpetrators with an anonymous and financially rewarding way (up to $1,000 rewards) to work with authorities.

This week, I saw (via Consumerist) that companies like Boloco, a Boston burrito restaurant, are using their own social media followers and community to try to solve crimes such as the theft of a safe from one of their stores. On Jan. 28, 2012, Boloco posted the following to its Facebook page:

‎$1000 cash reward for information that leads to apprehension of these 3 individuals who broke in and robbed our Boloco Berklee location last night less than 30 minutes after our team locked the doors. We added music to the video (because that's what we do), but it was haunting even without it.

We debated about whether to share this or not - traditionally this isn't something that is "shared"... but it's 2012 ... and we think everyone needs to see what is happening out there, and work together to reduce and one day eliminate evil people like these three.

The post was accompanied by the following video:

Just one day later, Boloco updated its Facebook page to say that it had already received a "juicy" tip that might result in a $1000 cash winner provided it led to an arrest. In Boloco's case, at least, sharing surveillance video and asking for help from its friends and followers looks to have been a great success.

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The idea of catching criminals via social media seems to be catching on. Earlier this month, I wrote here about new crime-stopper programs such as Silent Witness. These programs post surveillance videos, photos and other information about crimes online, and provide people who can help identify the perpetrators with an anonymous and financially rewarding way (up to $1,000 rewards) to work with authorities.

This week, I saw (via Consumerist) that companies like Boloco, a Boston burrito restaurant, are using their own social media followers and community to try to solve crimes such as the theft of a safe from one of their stores. On Jan. 28, 2012, Boloco posted the following to its Facebook page:

‎$1000 cash reward for information that leads to apprehension of these 3 individuals who broke in and robbed our Boloco Berklee location last night less than 30 minutes after our team locked the doors. We added music to the video (because that's what we do), but it was haunting even without it.

We debated about whether to share this or not - traditionally this isn't something that is "shared"... but it's 2012 ... and we think everyone needs to see what is happening out there, and work together to reduce and one day eliminate evil people like these three.

The post was accompanied by the following video:

Just one day later, Boloco updated its Facebook page to say that it had already received a "juicy" tip that might result in a $1000 cash winner provided it led to an arrest. In Boloco's case, at least, sharing surveillance video and asking for help from its friends and followers looks to have been a great success.